This book provides a novel account of the role of human rights discourse in the US foreign policy. The book analyses the US State Department's Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices as a means to monopolise and, more importantly, legitimise a specific framing of the human rights agenda to further US foreign policy. The US agenda's deviation from established international human rights standards has very serious implications considering the preponderant global influence exercised by the US. Furthermore, more recently, the reports have added a separate section on "corruption" as a human rights issue. "Corruption", a controversial concept from the outset, is understood in a narrow way as a public sector issue that largely prevails in and subverts the so-called developing and transition countries. This book shows how this recent inclusion ultimately serves the US global neoliberal imperialist agenda and becomes the hegemonic discourse in international organisations.

Dr. Ilia Xypolia is Lecturer at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Aberdeen, UK, and the reviews editor for the Journal of Global Faultlines.

Autorentext

Dr. Ilia Xypolia is Lecturer at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Aberdeen, UK, and the reviews editor for the Journal of Global Faultlines.

Inhalt

1. Panopticon: the architecture and the theatre of human rights2. Knowledge Production and Cultural Imperialism3. Human Rights and American Exceptionalism4. Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices5. Corruption as a Human Rights Issue6. Global Political Implications: Demonizing the Public Sector